


The Mermaid

by Emily_F6



Series: Penny Parker Prompts [28]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Female Peter Parker, Gen, Penny Parker - Freeform, mermaid au, no powers au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-28
Updated: 2020-08-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 14:15:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26160238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emily_F6/pseuds/Emily_F6
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: Penny Parker Prompts [28]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1899553
Comments: 3
Kudos: 113





	The Mermaid

**Prompt: A mermaid AU**

Tony Stark stood on the dock, staring out at the ocean where he would soon be living once more, a cup of coffee from Pepper Potts in his hand. The heat from the cup helped warm him in the cool morning air, and he found himself glancing back over his shoulder at the inn where Pepper still slept. It had been three months since he’d last seen her, and part of him wanted to stay. To give up a life at sea and give settling down another try.

Another part of him remembered his daughter and the wife that had left him and wanted no part of that ever again.

His ship bobbed up and down with the gentle waves to his right, a relic left to him by his own father. The man who had insisted that Tony was never meant for family life. That he would follow in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps and live and die out on the open waters. To his right was a rocky slope that led straight down to a stretch of sand at least five miles long. The sand was coarse and filled with rocks, and being on dry land felt strange to him after so long away, but he knew that Pepper would want a walk on the beach with him and he would give it to her.

Pepper’s neighbor, Dr. Helen Cho, called out a good morning to him, and he waved, taking a sip of the hot, black coffee. It wasn’t as strong as what he usually drank, but it would do the job. 

He turned away from his ship and the open ocean to look down at the sand instead. No use thinking about the things he couldn’t or wouldn’t change. Instead, he tried to see if he could spot any wildlife. Seagulls squabbled in the air, crying out at one another and then flying away in groups. He thought he saw a crab at the very edge of the beach, the waves washing gently over the spot of red that seemed to fade…and then fade some more. Tony frowned, stepping closer to the edge of the dock that swayed familiarly under his feet. There were multiple spots of red. Not crabs…blood. A trail of led his eyes from the ocean to the very edge of the dock…where, if he leaned down and peered over the edge, he found a girl. 

The girl lay on her side, blood running from her temple and pooling around her head, soaking her long, curly brown hair. Tony looked around…the girl was a teenager, at most. Had she been attacked? Where was her family? He hurried back to the mouth of the dock, then made his way down the rocks toward the sand, careful not to catch his foot on a rock and risk turning his ankle. The sun was just coming up, but still…how had he missed her? Why hadn’t he looked down?

He was just about to step onto the sand when he froze. There was something caught in her stomach…a harpoon. The top of a harpoon protruded from her stomach, the wood splintered right under the hook. Swallowing down bile, he stumbled forward once more, jumping from the rocks to the sand and feeling the world sway underneath him despite the fact that he was now on dry land. 

Then, for the second time, he froze.

The girl wore a top of strange fabric that wrapped around her chest and left her shoulders bare, but just below the wound on her stomach, where her thighs should have started, was a thick, red tail that tapered off into a red and blue fin. Black, shimmery lines wove their way through the other colors, and tipped off the very edge of her fin, glowing just a little in the darkness under the dock. He stared at it for a very long time before remembering himself.

She was hurt. No matter what she was…she was hurt. Tony wasn’t going to let a little girl die. Not again.

The girl was still until he took a step forward, boots sinking a little in the sand, and then she jerked awake, wild eyes finding him, and she started to sit bolt upright, only to give a strangled scream, a hand clutching her stomach. “Woah…hey…hi,” he murmured, hand raised in surrender. She watched his hands, shrinking away when he took another step. “Not going to hurt you. Just wanted to see if you were okay.” What a stupid thing to say, he thought. Of course she wasn’t okay. 

Her breathing sped up, and she tried to inch away, pushing herself backwards on the sand for a moment before the pain must have gotten to her and she collapsed once more, blood soaking the sand underneath her. 

“Okay…so you’re not okay. But…just…let me help?” He took another step and she showed her teeth, hands clenched into fists. “Please…I can help you. I know it hurts. Just let me help. Please.” 

As soon as he was within reaching distance, she took a swing at him, but her movements were weak and uncoordinated, and he caught her wrist easily, careful not to squeeze. “Shh, it’s okay. I won’t hurt you. I want to help.” She just stared at him, huge brown eyes brimming with tears. “Can you, uh, do you understand English?” He spoke haltingly, putting a hand on her shoulder and easing her onto her back. She’d stopped fighting, but he didn’t know if that was because she was going to trust him or because she couldn’t fight anymore. Her eyes had turned hazy, lips trembling as she closed her eyes.

Then, to his surprise, she nodded.

“You can understand me?”

Another nod. 

“Can you speak?”

“Yes.” Her voice was ragged, and bordered on a sob, the sound reminding him of his own daughter…of the little girl he’d only had for six years. Tony’s heart nearly broke in his chest, and he squeezed her shoulder. 

“Good. That should make things easier, huh? My name is Tony. What’s yours?” Fingers prodding gently, he tried to get a better look at the harpoon. But he wasn’t a doctor. What did he know about wounds like this? The girl flinched under his touch, a tear escaping her closed eyes and running down her cheek to join the blood in the sand.

“Penny.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Penny. Gotta admit, I thought mermaids were just stories. I’m not too sorry to be proven wrong.” He tried to smile at the girl who seemed to be losing color by the moment, but he was sure it came across as more of a grimace. “Is it okay if I pick you up? I have a friend…a doctor. She can help you.” He actually had no idea if Doctor Cho could help this girl, but he’d be damned if he was going to leave the poor thing to die out here.

Penny didn’t respond, just groaned when he slipped his arms under her, careful not to jar her too much. So he lifted her, surprised to find how light she was…and how hot her skin felt under his hands. As carefully as he could, he made his way back up the rocks, starting to shout for Helen, then stopping himself. Surely the girl didn’t want the whole town to know who she was…or what she was. So instead, he turned toward his ship, glancing down to check that the harpoon hadn’t shifted only to find her dull brown eyes on him. 

“You’re okay. You’ll be okay. I promise. Can, uh…can you breathe? Outside of the water, I mean?”

Penny nodded again, eyes drifting away from him to watch the sky as he practically sprinted down the length of the dock to the gangplank of his ship. Turning into the room he slept in, he lay on top of the perfectly made bed, a skill taught to him and then rigidly enforced by his father, then straightened, hovering just a little as she continued to stare straight ahead, hands limp at her sides. 

“I’ll be right back, okay? I promise!” 

And then he was running. Fast as he could. Feet pounding on the dock and then the uneven stones of the street, he raced up the path to Dr. Helen’s home, skidding to a stop and pounding on the door. She’d been on her back porch only a few minutes ago…surely she was home!

The woman opened the door, interrupting his pounding, an eyebrow raised. “Tony? What…”

“I need your help! There was a girl…she’s hurt! I took her to my ship!”

Helen didn’t hesitate or ask any questions. Instead, she ducked out of sight, then reappeared with a black leather bag in hand, then gestured for him to lead the way.

He almost warned her before they stepped on the ship…but she’d think he was mad. Instead, he threw the door to his room open and Helen, to his surprise, only froze for a few seconds before hurrying inside, dropping her bag onto his makeshift bedside table and pulling it open.

“Get me boiling water. And towels.” 

And so the rescue began.

It was three solid hours of work, the two of them cooped up in the increasingly warm bedroom, as Helen fought to stop the bleeding, remove the harpoon, and lower the girl’s fever. Finally, though, by midmorning, the girl was resting easily, new bandages wrapped around her stomach and head, fresh sheets having been placed on the bed and the old ones thrown into the fire. Helen grabbed an extra sheet and draped it over the girl, pulling it up to her stomach, only the black and blue tip of her fin showing at the edge of the bed, and then the two stepped outside, leaving the door open, and sat down heavily on the dock. 

“A mermaid,” Helen whispered, turning to Tony with wide eyes, all of her composure disappearing.

“It appears so.”

“You found…a mermaid?”

He nodded, placing a hand over his mouth and wondering, in all the confusion, where his coffee had gone. He sure could have used some. 

“But…that’s not…they’re a myth, Tony. And even if they’re not…surely…”

“I know.”

They sat here for a long time, Helen staring at the ocean as if waiting for another mermaid to appear, Tony wishing for coffee and wondering what the hell he was going to do. But the town was stirring, and Pepper would be out soon. The woman only slept in on Sundays, so in that respect they were lucky, but her cook and her boarders would be up, so Tony needed to check on the girl, then go talk to Pepper. 

Helen stood before he did, holding out her hand to him. “I’ll check on her. You talk to Pepper. Are you going to tell her?”

“Yes…I have to. Right?”

Helen only looked at him, an eyebrow raised, and he gave a harsh sigh.

“I’m going to tell her. Only her. We’ll both come back and see if Penny will talk to us.”

“She has a name?”

“Of course she does!”

“Is this a name you gave her or…”

“No. She told me,” Tony explained. “She was coherent for a few moments. Apparently she can understand English. And speak it.”

Helen stared for a moment, then nodded, apparently taking this in as well. “Alright. Well, bring Pepper back here and we’ll all try to decide what to do.”

Tony agreed, turning back toward the inn and wondering if he could get more coffee when Helen’s voice made him pause in his tracks. “Tony! Tony! Come here!”

He ran for what felt like the hundredth time that morning, heart clenched in his chest, mind racing. Surely…surely the girl hadn’t…she had to be okay, right? She’d been looking better, the wound wrapped in fresh gauze and…Tony stepped into the bedroom, Helen stood at the foot of the girl’s bed, face waxy in the candlelight, but Penny seemed to be sleepy just as peacefully as before, face having regained some of its color. He stared at her face, then let his eyes trail down to the bandages on her stomach. They were still clean. He started to ask Helen what the hell was going on when his eyes landed on her’s, then followed them down to the edge of the bed. Where the fin had been hanging off the bed were two pale feet. 

“She was…Tony…she was a…”

“A mermaid, yes,” he agreed, nodding vigorously, mouth slack in shock. He could still remember the warm, dry scales under his hand, the texture more like a snake than a fish. 

“But…her fin…she’s…” 

“Yeah.” 

It would be hours before the girl woke. Hours before a frightened Penny haltingly explained that mermaids could change, could look like humans at will, and often did when they’d been out of water for too long. Hours before she told them her story, about a man hunting her and her family…about being along for so long now.

And it was then, with those words, that Tony knew he would never let anyone hurt her. Never again. 

He’d almost given up on having a family, and then the sea had delivered one to him personally. That wasn’t a sign he was willing to ignore, his father be damned. 


End file.
